WORK STARTS FOR SHERRATT ON AVOIDING THREAT OF A NEW WELSH LOW

MATT Sherratt and his coaching team have already started to plan a way Wales can end a 17-game losing streak by beating Japan this summer.

- STEFFAN THOMAS

The interim Wales head coach will be joined by Harlequins coach Danny Wilson (forwards), Gethin Jenkins (defence), Adam Jones (scrum) and T Rhys Thomas (skills) in Japan.

In normal circumstances Wales would look to use a trip which coincides with a British and Irish Lions tour to blood players, but these are strange times.

Wales only have two players on the Lions tour flanker Jac Morgan and scrum-half Tomos Williams while Sherratt is merely keeping the seat warm before the Welsh Rugby Union find a long-term replacement for Warren Gatland.

But more importantly than that, Japan sit 13th in the World Rugby rankings, just one place below Wales.

Defeat this summer would weaken Wales' World Cup seeding and potentially see them drop into a pool which contains a further three tier one nations.

There cannot be too much mixing and matching this summer because Wales need to win this one.

So what are the biggest conundrums facing Sherratt this summer and what could he do differently from the Six Nations?

During the Six Nations Sherratt was handed a squad at a really low ebb midway through the championship and it would have been extremely difficult to change too much.

Yes, there was a shift in terms of the way they moved the ball. But this summer Sherratt and his coaching team will be able to get through far more detail in the lead-up to the tour.